Jacob Fearnley puts up a fight against Novak Djokovic after Andy Murray advice
Fearnley left Centre Court to a standing ovation after he made a strong impression during his debut week at a grand-slam.
British number 13 Jacob Fearnley was grateful to receive pre-match pointers from Andy Murray before he pushed Novak Djokovic in a high-quality second-round defeat to the seven-time Wimbledon champion.
The Edinburgh-born right-hander followed in the footsteps of Murray by taking on Djokovic on Centre Court to continue his dream debut week at the Championships.
While Fearnley bowed out after a 6-3 6-4 5-7 7-5 loss, the 22-year-old made the most of the occasion with 42 winners to give the home crowd plenty to shout about and was helped by words of wisdom from Murray.
“He gave Mark some points to give to me, which was nice. The stuff he said actually helped a lot. Not unsurprisingly because he’s played him so many times. That was really nice of him.
“I don’t know if he watched it, but yeah, it was awesome that he was even thinking about the match. It was really cool.”
It had been a whirlwind month for Fearnley after he finished his five-year stint at Texas Christian University in May before he won an ATP Challenger Tour event in Nottingham as a qualifier last month.
A wild card at the All England Club followed for the world number 277 and after he defeated Alejandro Moro Canas on Tuesday, the small matter of 24-time grand-slam winner Djokovic was up next on the grandest of stages in SW19.
No nerves were initially present from Fearnley, who walked out with his white baseball cap back-to-front and sealed a simple hold with a 121mph ace.
An enthralling encounter followed, with Fearnley’s first-set highlight a wonderful backhand, which kissed the white chalk to conclude a 21-shot rally, but Djokovic did break in that same eighth game to claim set one.
Fearnley failed to grasp his first break point chance in the fourth game of the second set, but recovered from going two sets down to begin the third set impressively.
He repeated the feat six games later when Djokovic sent his forehand wide to give the Scot a memorable set.
After a clenched-fist celebration, Fearnley pulled out a tweener, but he could not take more break points in the fourth set as he lost in exactly three hours before a standing ovation greeted his departure from Centre Court.
“I’m really proud of my effort,” Fearnley said.
“A little bit disappointed to come up with a loss, but I was playing the greatest tennis player of all time on Centre Court, Wimbledon, so it’s very difficult to be too disappointed.
“I’m going to give myself a tap on the back and be, like, ‘yeah, it was a great summer,’. I’ll go to dinner with my family tonight and we’ll talk about it.
“In the next couple of days it will fizzle out, and yeah, move on to the next.
“In terms of the future, I don’t know where my ranking is really at right now. I think I’m on 220, so I think I’m into (US Open) qualies as of now, if I’m not mistaken, but I’m not so sure.
“I think I’m going to go over to the States and play some of the challengers there. Hopefully get into Newport 250 in qualifying and yeah, just excited to get back playing.”
